All of God's creatures have rights, a fact that most people don't seem to
recognize. This includes both human and non-human animals, but not all of them
can speak for themselves. As we continue to disregard the value of the lives of the billions of animals we eat, we also are
destroying our air, land and water.

FROM

Producers have learned that if a label contains buzzwords such as “happy,”
“free,” “humane,” or “animal welfare,” concerned customers will often buy
their products (with higher prices) without actually understanding their
practices. The result is a confusing proliferation of packaging labels
pertaining to farmed animal welfare. But what do these labels really mean?

What is the difference between Certified Humane and American Humane
Certified? What’s the difference between free-range and cage-free?

Unfortunately, consumers who care about animals are being misled by
deceptive marketing schemes.

Producers have learned that if a label contains buzzwords such as
“happy,” “free,” “humane,” or “animal welfare,” concerned customers will
often buy their products (with higher prices) without actually understanding
their practices.

The result is a confusing proliferation of packaging labels pertaining to
farmed animal welfare. But what do these labels really mean?

To start, it’s important to know that there is no legal definition of
“humane.”1

Under USDA-approved welfare labels, farms and producers decide
independently what practices they will call “humane.” The USDA merely
verifies that the company follows its own arbitrary standards.

Some private humane certification labels require third-party auditors to
verify compliance with their standards, but even among these programs the
term “humane” is not consistently defined or enforced.

Piglet restrained for scalpel castration

For example, Animal Welfare Approved does not allow debeaking, but
considers castration and ear notching without pain relief “humane.”

On the other hand, American Humane Certified permits debeaking, but does not
allow ear notching and requires anesthesia for castration of some animals.

Furthermore, not only do terms like “humane” and “free-range” mean different
things to different producers; they also mean different things depending on
the kind of animal.

For instance, while free-range beef cows must have spent some time on
pasture, free-range chickens commonly spend their entire lives crammed
inside windowless sheds with thousands of other birds.

Free-Range

Pigs can be confined in manure-laden barns like this one and still be sold
as free-range pork. Image: freerangefraud.com

The term “free-range” is not regulated by the USDA, except for use on
chickens and turkeys raised for meat (which only requires “access” to
outdoors).

Its use for cows and pigs is neither regulated nor enforced.

Often, free-range labels refer to animals packed into warehouse-style
sheds with no access to the outdoors.

This is far from the rolling pasture that the term “free-range” conjures
in most people’s minds.

All that is required for free-range labeling of poultry is that the birds
have “access” to the outdoors for an unspecified amount of time.

Thousands of birds may be confined inside a warehouse facility with a
single exit the size of a cat door, and the door may be opened for a few
minutes. This still qualifies as free-range.2

The layers of excrement and urine in which these birds are forced to
stand, day after day, cause severe flesh and eye burns, and fill the air
with so much ammonia that many birds suffer from respiratory disorders.

Conditions on many free-range operations are so bad that most birds are
not even aware of outdoor access, or they are too crowded, ill, or weak to
move that far.

Under misleading welfare labels, confinement operations like this one sell
their eggs as “cage-free.” Photo: Sally Ryan, New York Times

Under misleading welfare labels, confinement operations like this one
sell their eggs as “cage-free.” Photo: Sally Ryan, New York Times
Under misleading welfare labels, confinement operations like this one sell
their eggs as “cage-free.” Photo: Sally Ryan, New York Times
Cage-free labels refer to hens used for eggs and mean only that the chickens
are not in cages.

Cage-free egg-laying hens are typically crowded into windowless sheds or
warehouse facilities, with thousands of birds on the floor and on stacked
wire platforms, with little or no access to the outdoors and no room to
perform natural behaviors.

The ammonia laden air is so noxious that hens commonly suffer respiratory
disorders, severe flesh and eye burns, and even blindness.

Debeaking is routine and permitted. There is no third-party auditing.

This Perdue brand of chicken meats uses “cage-free” on their labels to
mislead consumers into believing they are more humane.

This Perdue brand of chicken meats uses “cage-free” on their labels to
mislead consumers into believing they are more humane.
Cage-free labels should only appear on egg packages, as egg-laying hens are
the only farmed animals kept in cages. (Veal calves and breeding sows are
confined in crates.)

When cage-free labels appear on chicken or turkey meats (as shown in this
photo of Harvest Land chicken meat), consumers are being deliberately
misled.

Even on factory farms, chickens and turkeys raised for meat are not kept
in cages, but are severely confined indoors inside massive sheds.

Grass-Fed

Typical feedlot.

Cows raised for beef eat grass for at least the first six months of life,
then most are shipped to crowded, barren feedlots and fattened (“finished”)
on grain to reach slaughter weight more quickly.

Some producers market feedlot-finished beef as higher priced grass-fed
beef even though their cows are intensively confined for the last year or
more of life.

USDA certified grass-fed animals must have access to pasture from early
Spring to late Fall, but may otherwise be confined to pens or sheds.

All of the standard mutilations including castration, dehorning, and
branding are permitted without pain relief under generic and USDA grass-fed
labels. Hormones and antibiotics are also allowed.

Humanely Raised

The term “humanely raised” is not regulated or verified, meaning animals
can be raised in confinement and mutilated without painkiller.3

Unfortunately, virtually any producer can slap a “humanely raised” label
on their animal product, which renders the term nearly meaningless. Even on
higher welfare farms, the term is often used deceptively.

Niman Ranch is a useful example, considered by many to be a model of
humane pig farming. Their website shows images of happily roaming pigs, and
their pork labels read, “Humanely raised on sustainable farms.” The labels
also say, “Raised outdoors or in deeply bedded pens.”

That “or” is a loophole that means that Niman Ranch could get away with
confining up to 100% of their pigs indoors. According to one writer, they
currently confine around 75% of their pigs in warehouse-style barns with
straw floors.

The welfare of pigs not given access to the outdoors is markedly lower
than that of grazing pigs, yet Niman Ranch enjoys the celebrated reputation
of a “pastured pork” operation.

Humane Dairy & Happy Cows

Real cheeese from Happy Cows label

Happy Cow Creamery Label

The Laughing Cow label

Despite all the feel-good labels to the contrary, happy dairy cows are a
myth. The basis of all dairy production is sexual violation and the
destruction of motherhood.

These are not overstatements. It is a matter of fact that in order to
produce milk, female cows must be impregnated (usually via invasive
artificial insemination), carry their babies for nine months (like humans),
and give birth.

Also inherent to dairy production is the separation of calves from their
mothers in order for humans to take their milk.

This breaking of the mother-calf bond happens on small farms, humane
label farms, and factory farms alike. According to the USDA, 97% of dairy
calves are permanently removed from their mothers within just the first 12
hours of birth.4

Many humane label farms remove the calves in the first hour, claiming
that the longer mother and calf are permitted to bond, the more stressful
the separation.

Most calves spend their first 2 to 3 months of life in constant
confinement in cramped, individual hutches, and never know the nurturing or
warmth of their mother’s care.

Regardless of farm type, male calves of dairy cows are sold to be killed
for veal or cheap beef.

When they are no longer optimally productive, dairy cows are slaughtered
for cheap beef, usually around five years of age.

SPECIFIC PACKAGING LABELS

Certified Organic

USDA Organic label

For animal products, the organic label mainly distinguishes animals raised
without hormones and antibiotics, which are prohibited under organic
standards. Animal feed must also be organic.

Animals must have “access” to the outdoors, with cows, sheep and goats
given some access to pasture, but the amount, duration, and quality of
outdoor access is undefined.

Organic standards do not provide protection against routine mutilations,
severe confinement, rough handling, long transport, or brutal slaughter of
animals. Tail-docking, dehorning, debeaking, and castration without
painkiller are all permitted.

American Grass-Fed Certified

American Grassfed label

While the USDA’s grass-fed label allows for confinement of animals, American
Grassfed Certification requires continuous access to pasture and a diet of
100 percent forage. Hormones and antibiotics are also prohibited.

However, routine mutilations such as castration, tail docking, branding
and dehorning are all permitted without pain relief.

No standards are in place regarding the treatment of breeding animals,
animals during transport, or animals at slaughter.

American Humane Certified

American Humane Certified label

One of the worst certified labels. Access to the outdoors is not required
for any animals, and indoor space requirements are the lowest of all the
main humane certification programs.

AHC is the only third-party audited welfare program to permit cage
confinement of egg hens. The killing of male chicks, debeaking, and tail
docking without pain relief are permitted.

Some standards extend to the treatment of breeding animals, animals
during transport, and animals at slaughter.

Animal Welfare Approved

Animal Welfare Approved label

The Animal Welfare Approved certification is a program of the Animal Welfare
Institute. They claim to have “the most rigorous standards for farm animal
welfare currently in use by any United States organization.”

As proof of this claim, their website includes a useful chart comparing
the various practices and provisions of each certified humane label. While
there is bias in favor of AWA in the chart and guide, we include them here
for reference.

The AWI boasts that the AWA is the only USDA-approved third-party
certification program, but as with other humane labels, egregious cruelties
are still permitted.

On the upside, animals have “access” to the outdoors and are able to
engage in “some” natural behaviors. No cages or crates may be used, and
growth hormones and antibiotics are prohibited. Debeaking is also not
allowed.

However, the killing of male chicks born to egg-laying hens is permitted,
as are other painful mutilations performed without painkiller, including ear
notching and castration.

Standards include breeding, transport, and slaughter of animals.

Certified Humane

Certified Humane label

There is no requirement for outdoor access for birds used for meat,
egg-laying hens, or pigs. However, minimum space allowances and indoor
environmental enrichments are stipulated.

Feedlots are permitted for beef cattle. Killing of male chicks born to
egg-laying hens is allowed.

Debeaking of hens and turkeys, tail docking of pigs, dehorning of goats
without painkiller, and rubber ring castration without painkiller are all
permitted.

Standards include the treatment of breeding animals, animals during
transport, and animals at slaughter.

Global Animal Partnership

Global Animal Partnership label

GAP is a step-based rating program used by Whole Foods.

Producers receive one of six ratings, from Step 1 to Step 5+. Step 1
permits industrial style (factory farm) confinement of animals and merely
prohibits crates and cages. Feedlots are allowed for beef cattle through
Step 4. Debeaking and tail docking are permitted through Step 3.

Standards consider the treatment during transport, but not breeding or
slaughter.

Process Verified

Process Verified label

Warning: this industry label is intentionally misleading.

The USDA currently allows producers enrolled in its Process Verified
Program (PVP) to label their products “humanely raised.”

In reality, producers decide independently what practices they will call
“humane,” and the USDA merely verifies that the company follows its own
arbitrary standards.

Under such a scheme, industrial producers running large scale confinement
operations can simply submit their current practices as “humane,” and
display the “Process Verified” and “humanely raised” labels.

Hens in these barren cages have 67 square inches of cage space per bird
(less than a sheet of paper), and cannot perform any of their natural
behaviors, including perching, nesting, foraging, or even spreading their
wings. Debeaking is permitted and routine.

Fair Use Notice: This document, and others on our web site, may contain copyrighted
material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owners.
We believe that this not-for-profit, educational use on the Web constitutes a fair use
of the copyrighted material (as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law).
If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use,
you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.